EL PASO, Tx., November 10, 2025: With the federal shutdown now the longest in the nation’s history, city officials fear only weeks of food for low-income El Pasoans is left. An official who agreed to speak to us for background purposes only because they are not authorized to speak publicly about food scarcity told us that city officials were told recently that at most El Paso has a month of food reserves before running out.
Even before the loss of SNAP benefits for low-income El Pasoans due to the shutdown, El Paso was facing food insecurity problems.
A special report prepared by the Paso del Norte Institute for Health Living in 2017 found that “more than 160,000 El Paso County residents, including over 52,000 children, live in lower-income communities with limited supermarket access.” The report also identified that over 10% of El Pasoans were “often” worried that money would run out before receiving their next paycheck, food subsidy or both. This compares to the 4% across the country who worried about running out of money for food. Almost 8% of El Pasoans “often” ran out of money for food, compared to 3% nationally. Around 30% of El Pasoans “sometimes” worried about running out of food or ran out of food before they had money to feed their families.
An interesting observation made by the food insecurity report is that they believe participation in the SNAP program among El Pasoans “is low among income-eligible people, leaving an estimated $91 million” unused each year. In addition to feeding low-income populations, the federal food subsidies infuse cash into the city through the grocery stores where they are used. This is what the report refers to as “unused” funds that do not enter the city’s economy.
The reason for the “low participation,” according to the report are the “lengthy application process and the complex eligibility guidelines.” The report adds that additionally there is a “stigma and cultural barriers,” keeping an estimated participation of 76% among eligible people. The report adds that the national participation rate is 83% while in Texas it is 66%, putting El Pasoans above the state average but below the national average.
The study did not cite the source for the “low participation” figures, and we could not find any other independent sources confirming the study’s figures. Nonetheless, our research identified 143,415 El Pasoans who participate in SNAP food subsidies.
A Journal of Applied Business and Economic 2024 study by UTEP’s by Thomas Fullerton and other UTEP professors estimated that 35% of El Paso’s residents experienced some form of food insecurity. This would suggest that around 306,500 El Pasoans experience some type of food shortage.
These numbers reflect totals before the closure of SNAP food benefits from the federal shutdown and do not include Ft. Bliss families now experiencing food and other income problems. El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank has already been forced to allocate around 1,500 food boxes to help Ft. Bliss families weather their lack of paychecks during the shutdown.
County Commissioner David Stout told KTSM last Monday that he suspects that problems from the federal shutdown, including access to food were “going to get worse” in the coming days.
Stout’s comments mirror what city officials were told recently – that food resources in the city would runout around Thanksgiving Day.
Late last week news broke that a federal judge had ordered the use of emergency funding to restore SNAP benefits. But the benefits would be about half of their normal value. On Friday, more news broke that the judge had ordered that the full value of the subsidies be released to the recipients.
Following that order, the USDA issued a memorandum to its regional directors advising them that they should prepare to issue the full amount of the subsidies.
However, later Friday, the US Supreme Court paused the order to pay the full amount, leading USDA to issue a second memorandum on Saturday ordering states not to issue the full among of the federal food subsidy this month.
The new guidance keeps the original plan to issue partial food subsidies this month. The partial SNAP subsidies only apply to existing beneficiaries and not new ones who signed up this month leaving first-time applicants out of the benefits.
It remains unclear when Texas will be releasing the benefits to the participants in the SNAP program.
An appeals court ruled on Sunday that the Trump administration must issue the full amount, but the Supreme Court’s pause does not allow the order to move forward. The administration continues to order that the full amount not be paid.
El Paso Herald Post spoke to individuals waiting for their SNAP benefits. Several of them expected the benefits to arrive last week. They did not. People we spoke to said they do not know when they will get their benefits.
The Texas Health and Human Services direct individuals to its website to find out when to expect the benefits. This morning the status states that “HHSC is working to implement the latest federal guidance to issue SNAP benefits.” It does not provide a timeline of when the recipients can expect them.
This is a developing story, and we will bring you new information as it becomes available.
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